Pre-procurement stage of competitive dialogue "poorly executed", says Treasury
Pre-procurement is the most important stage of a competitive dialogue procedure but is “often the most neglected and poorly executed”, the Treasury has claimed.
Publishing a review into the use of competitive dialogue, it said the government’s Efficiency and Reform Group would provide further guidance on what is a “key area of concern”.
The Treasury also insisted that competitive dialogue should not be seen as the “default” procedure for all complex procurements.
The government is now developing step-by-step guides to the open, restricted and negotiated procedures. “[These] should give authorities the confidence to use alternative procedures where these are appropriate,” the Treasury said.
Other key recommendations from the report – which took 18 months to put together – include:
- A series of training courses for complex procurement should be developed for officials across the public sector. “Inconsistent training courses on the competitive dialogue procedure has contributed to a lack of upskilling in procurement professionals,” it claimed
- All future projects wishing to use competitive dialogue over the open and restricted procedures should include their justification document in their published procurement documentation, following sign off by the senior responsible owner and the organisation’s head of procurement
- To inform new bidders, “and to combat some of the more common impressions about what can be expected during a competitive dialogue procurement”, a short ‘Suppliers’ Guide to the Competitive Dialogue Process’ should be developed
- Contracting authorities should – as part of their pursuit of the best value for money solution – be cognisant of the private sector’s ‘auditioning’ process. “They should use Bidders’ Days OJEU Prior Information Notices and Contract Notices to showcase their preparation and demonstrate to all bidders their capacity, capability and commitment to delivering an efficient and timely procurement process”
- Procurement timetables should be developed allowing for a realistic schedule of meetings. This would help address internal approval processes and allow sufficient time to revise documents.
- Projects should establish their own procedures for closing dialogue before entering procurement. “Taking the time to establish the level of detail and assurance required in advance of entering dialogue will avoid costly overruns and impromptu requests for further information”
- Contracting authorities should consider which issues need to be dialogued “and they should not seek to dialogue every aspect of the contract”
- Contracting authorities should produce a detailed guide to the evaluation approach to be taken, “setting out the value of each piece of information requested and linking each response to the evaluation criteria”. This will reduce bid costs for the private sector, reduce the administrative burden for the public sector and facilitate a swifter and more accurate evaluation of bids
- Public sector teams should engage in a shadow charging exercise “to provide a more accurate picture of the cost of undertaking complex procurements”
- Contracting authorities should bear bid costs in mind when determining “the level of detail genuinely required for bid submission purposes at each stage of dialogue and what is absolutely necessary for evaluation purposes and to deliver the required planning permissions”.
A series of roundtable discussions with both public and private sector contributors identified four main areas of concern: the capacity for competitive dialogue to secure improved outcomes; the increased cost of dialogue; cancelled or delayed procurements; and cherry picking and bid convergence.
The Treasury said it had engaged with the Procurement Lawyers Association and legal advisers from the PPP Forum with a view to encouraging the legal sector to debate those areas of competitive dialogue delivery most heavily influenced by legal advice.
These key issues range from the original decision to pursue dialogue over alternative procurement routes, to behaviours during dialogue, approaches to evaluation and the interpretation of “clarify, specify and fine tune”, the report said.
A copy of the report can be downloaded here.
